Memories Don't Shatter
by obviousmystery
Summary: One of the gems is put in a perilous position... and she might not make it out alive.
1. Chapter 1

Garnet stood in shock. She was surrounded. In the entire time she served Rose and the rebellion, she had never encountered monsters quite like these. They were forced fusions, of course, but something was different about these that Garnet couldn't quite place. Then it hit her. These fusions were formed from the shards of corrupted gems. It made sense, in a morbid sort of way. Of course Homeworld would immediately shatter a corrupted gem, so they had plenty of the shards lying around. Garnet took a moment to assess these gruesome creatures. Several of them had arms sprouting out of their necks, heads coming from both ends, some even were in a constant state of reforming because there was no form they could hold. Garnet was glued to the spot.

Suddenly she heard a shout. "Garnet! We have to go!" Shouted Topaz. She had summoned two of her fatal boomerangs from her gem and was slicing the monsters as quickly as she could. Garnet knew she needed to move, but she couldn't. She started to glow, her form destabilizing. She had no control over her body because… she had no body, just an indeterminate mass of light. She calmed down and took a deep breath, remembering the lesson she had just given Stevonnie last week.

Suddenly, one of the creatures lunged at her. But she had calmed down enough that she had reformed completely, and she summoned her gauntlets. She knocked one of the creatures over to Topaz, who immediately caught on and juggled the large creature almost effortlessly with her boomerangs. Garnet then grabbed the tail (arm?) of one creature and spun it into a group of its friends. Garnet and Topaz fought valiantly for hours, until they were surrounded, back to back. They looked at each other as they realized they were doomed, and the stress was too much for Garnet. She split into Ruby and Sapphire. Everything after that was a blur. One of the creatures swiped at Topaz and she poofed. Sapphire saw as Ruby bubbled her and sent her back to the temple so she wouldn't be shattered. The last thing Sapphire remembered was looking deep into Ruby's eyes as she felt her form slip away. She struggled to hold on but poofed right as Ruby reached out to her. Then everything went black.


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's Note: Hey guys! I noticed I didn't include an author's note on the last chapter (It completely slipped my mind) so I'll make up for it here. I do not own any of the characters of Steven Universe, only Topaz (My OC). Feel free to use her but shoot me a message first! My Tumblr is obviousmystery227. Lastly, reviews are always appreciated and I always do my best to answer questions.**

Darkness. That was all there was for sapphire. But it wasn't bad. It was the place she had retreated to inside her gem after being poofed by the corrupted fusion. After a little while she decided she was ready to form, and light erupted from her gem, taking her usual form. She immediately took stock of her surroundings. She was… in the temple? But how? She had just been in the beta kindergarten fighting those monsters. Then the realization struck her. Ruby's eyes. A reddish haze. The Darkness. Ruby had bubbled her gem and sent her back to the temple. Wait. RUBY!? Where was Ruby? Certainly she had not bubbled herself. Sapphire immediately started heading for the warp pad, but then decided she would need the other gems if she was to have any chance of defending herself.

Sapphire called a meeting in the living room. Pearl, Amethyst and Steven all waited for her on the sofa. But wait, where was Topaz? Suddenly, the azure gem appeared from the basement, and sat down next to Steven on the couch. "Okay," Sapphire began, "We're all here." And she relayed the events of the previous evening to the four of them.

The gems all warped to the lesser kindergarten and were greeted with a horrid sight. They had not imagined the level of destruction currently laid out before them. As they surveyed the ruins, Sapphire Stepped on something sharp. "Ow!" she cried out as she stopped to examine what was in her foot. It was… A red shard? What could have possibly… then she stooped down to examine the rest of the shards. They were all a deep shade of red. Sapphire stared a moment in disbelief. "No" she thought, "No no no no no no no…" her mind playing the broken record of her despair. She frantically picked up the shards, trying to piece them together, knowing it was futile but unable to stop. Steven immediately wanted to help but Pearl held him back. "It's not possible Steven. Rose tried many, many times." Steven immediately turned to ask Garnet, "Hey Garnet, can I…?" but then he remembered. He burst into tears, as his cries of anguish filled the beta. He turned to Pearl for comfort, and the two of them held on to each other for support.

Sapphire's despair knew no bounds. The most important part of her world, her universe… gone. Suddenly she felt as though her melancholy was so absolute that she could never function again. And suddenly, a clean, uniform crack extended halfway across her gem.

"Sapphire! Not you too!" cried Steven through his tears. The blue gem turned to look at him, and Steven ran up to hug her. Her countenance did not change whatsoever. He then pulled back and took her hand in his, rubbing spit on her gem. It immediately was fixed and then… cracked again. Steven turned to Topaz as she began to explain.

"Steven," She said, "You learned before that corruption is mostly mental. That's true, but a gem's mental state can manifest itself in any number of ways. When a gem suffers such a violent shock so quickly, it can cause her gem to crack. The gem will heal itself as she recovers, or the crack will worsen as she does. It is all up to whether Sapphire will be able to recover."

Pearl bubbled Ruby's shards and sent them back to the temple. Then the four gems went to the warp pad and went home. Well, home for the other three. For Sapphire it was just the temple, because without her Ruby, she had no home.


	3. Chapter 3

**Author's Note: Hey! If you've made it this far then I guess you like my story at least a little, so it'd really be appreciated if you could show your support somehow. Follow, Favorite, Review, even a PM is okay! I just need to know this story's worth continuing. Anyways, on with the story:**

The warp pad chimed as the gems arrived back at the temple, all of them in varying states of disarray. There was no mystery, however, as to who was hardest hit. Sapphire didn't even bother to leave the warp pad because she had no need (Which is good because realizing she could no longer enter Garnet's room would've been another shock). The other gems tried to comfort her, but it was as if they were a thousand miles away, or underwater. She was in such despair she hadn't even noticed her gem had considerably darkened along with the crack it now held.

Steven was almost as bad off as her, not just over the death of Ruby, but over the state of Sapphire as well. He had just lost one gem; he didn't want to lose another. He came over to Sapphire and sat down beside her. He tried to get her attention, shaking her gently and saying "Sapphire, look at me." She eventually turned to him and tried to pay what little attention she could.

"I know what you're experiencing is way worse than what we are. You were much closer to Ruby than we were. But you can't let yourself shatter too! We need you, Sapphire. If anything happened to you… I don't know if I could live with myself." Sapphire tried to clear some of the fog in her head, and saw the look of melancholy mixed with concern on Steven's face. She had to at least try. For him.

As she thought this, her gem glowed softly, and part of that crack disappeared. Not much, only about 1/16th of the entire thing, but it was something. Sapphire saw just the faintest hint of relief in his eyes.

"Steven," Topaz suggested, "Why don't you go on up to bed? It's been a long day." He was about to protest when Pearl cut in, "Topaz is right, Steven. You need your rest." And with that he went off to prepare for bed. "Look Sapphire," Pearl said, "I know it's tough… What you're going through… but it gets a little better. Over time, with the right amount of recovery and support, you'll be able to function again. Letting yourself shatter over this wouldn't bring Ruby back in the end. And we need you."

"HOW COULD YOU EVEN BEGIN TO _THINK_ YOU KNOW WHAT THIS IS LIKE?" screamed Sapphire, then she immediately began to regret it as she thought about it. But she didn't care. She was too upset to care that Pearl had now begun to cry.

*14 years ago*

Pearl looked over as she heard a strange cry. There he was. Little Steven. The one they had been waiting for these 9 months. And as soon as she saw his face she began to cry, because that meant that Rose had finally left. Having 9 months to prepare; it didn't make it any easier when it actually happened. The fact that Rose was gone forever… took what should've been a happy moment and darkened the edges of it. Pearl couldn't hold back the tears as she thought of the things she and Rose would never do again… The tender caresses, the soft touches, secrets shared under moonlight. Of course, Steven was unbothered by any of this, only concerned with the fact that he was cold and hungry and wanted to go back. But it wasn't until a few years later that he realized there wasn't anywhere to go back to anymore.

*Present day*

Pearl knew Sapphire didn't mean it, that she was just lashing out, but it hurt just the same. And suddenly, she was drained of energy and needed to lie down. She disappeared into her room. Sapphire got up and went into her room of the temple, where she hadn't been for thousands of years, and disappeared behind the door.


End file.
